Reflections on Magazine Covers Lesson: Katy

I believe the aim of our lesson was to successfully recreate a magazine cover or parody a magazine cover from a selection provided. We wanted to stretch the students in order to think about the meaning behind the magazine cover they had chosen to reproduce and how they could use the tools provided to create a different meaning entirely.

We planned to do an introduction to the topic to start our lesson, using a Power Point presentation including some examples. This would be followed by a quick discussion on what the students had just seen in order to generate some initial ideas. We then divided the class into 3 groups and divided the rooms into 2. This first room was the photo studio where groups would take their images using the DSLR camera, with the lighting and tripod available for use too. In their groups they would be divided into two in order to produce their magazine covers in the next room, once they had taken their photos they would head next door to the editing suite to produce their magazine covers. The remaining groups would then rotate into the photo studio to create their images for their front cover. In the editing suite students in pairs would create a parody of the magazine covers they had chosen from a selection provided, they would then use Photoshop to edit their images and recreate their magazine covers. We would then group back together to feedback the work the students had produced.

I believe the lesson had various successes, these included the enthusiasm of the students working both in the photo studio and the editing suite, there was an air of excitement about the work that they were creating. The feedback session was particularly successful and students were keen to talk about the work they had produced and discuss it in relation to the set task. I also felt the organisation of the rotations into each of the rooms was also successful with all students having something to work on whilst they were not in the photo studio regardless of the stage of magazine cover production they were at.

If I were to do the task again, I would like to spend a little bit more time at the beginning discussing some of the images and examples in more detail. I would also set out a clearer task in order to avoid the sense of confusion once the initial task was set. There would be a definite organisation of the groups that people were working in to avoid any questions. I would also play about more with the equipment and tools in order to foresee any potential hazards that may arise during the task, and be able to ensure that students had a full explanation of the equipment they were working with, especially in the photo studio e.g. lights/tripod etc.

Students developed their camera and photography skills in order to recreate the main image on the magazine covers. They were then able to refresh their Photoshop skills and were able to construct a magazine cover parody successfully.